FIRST robot ready for competition

FIRST robotics gives teams a six-week build period, and the Clinton High-Nypro partnership, known as Gael Force, uses every second of that time.

Even while putting out the cake for its send-off party Tuesday afternoon, students and their adult mentors were trouble-shooting problems, refining processes and dreaming up alternative working plans to make their robot perform its best during the upcoming competition season.

While its competition robot was sealed in a shipping bag Tuesday evening, the team will continue to practice, using a back-up robot, and using things it has learned in scrimmages, including one Monday with a neighboring team; the squad from Nashoba Regional High School.

This year's challenge is a departure from past years. There are no balls in sight. Instead, the robot must throw Frisbees into a series of scoring goals (with point values of three, two and one points, depending on the location), with another scoring spot on top of a metal pyramid that the robot must scale at the end of the match, explained freshmen Abigail Reyes and Maria Victoria Araujo, who are in their first year on the team.

Mentor Tom O'Connell said it is a smaller team than in past years, forcing the students to work harder and smarter than in the past.

John DiSessa, a junior on the team, and a veteran of three years on the squad, said shooting the Frisbees has been a challenge, but the bigger challenge is figuring out how to make the robot climb the metal-frame tower.

“We're working on it,” DiSessa said, even as students and mentors laid on the floor, figuring out a technical problem.

In addition to working on the robot, the team also had community projects, both within Clinton (visiting schools and even running a backpack drive) and within the FIRST community, not only reaching out to other teams around the world with a pen-pal project, but running seminars on programming and award preparation.

Tuesday, three of the students — Reyes, Paige Tencati and Katie McGown — gave part of their chairman's award presentation to visitors, in preparation of doing the same for FIRST officials.

The team will compete at WPI, in Worcester, March 7 to 9, and at Boston University, March 21 to 23.